1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice rink cooling facility that is used for cooling an ice rink having a large area to be cooled.
2. Background of the Invention
An ice rink that is utilized for ice-skating is generally annexed to a cooling facility that is used for manufacturing ice in forming the ice rink as well as for regulating the ice temperature of the ice rink. As Patent Reference 1 (JP1997-303920) discloses, a plurality of cooling pipes is constructed in the floor region as the platform of the ice rink; through the cooling pipes, the brine that is cooled by a refrigerating device such as a brine cooler is circulated so as to cool the inside of the ice rink and perform ice manufacture or ice-temperature regulation.
As described above, an ice rink generally has a large area to be cooled; thus, in order to maintain the frozen condition of ice rink, a large number of pipes have to be arranged so that a cooling pipe and the adjacent pipe thereof are placed close to each other; further, the refrigerating device has to be always driven and the brine has to be circulated.
Under the circumstances as described above, Patent Reference 2 (JP1987-19668) discloses a contrivance in which a plurality of pipes as cold reserving instruments is arranged so that the latent heat in the cold reserving instruments maintains the frozen condition. Thus, the number of the pipes arranged over the ice rink can be reduced; and, the running cost for operating the refrigerating device (the refrigerator) that accompanies the circulation of the cooling medium can be reduced.
In order to reduce the number of the cooling pipes, the cooling pipes are generally arranged along not the width direction but the longitudinal direction over the ice rink; and, in the construction example shown in Patent Reference 2, the distance between the adjacent cooling pipes can be longer than 100 mm so as to reduce the number of the pipes.